Ron DeSantis appoints former Jeopardy champion as new board member for the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

Jun 01, 2023 in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

Forum Forums Tweet Share Tweet Share

Posted: Thursday June 1, 2023 4:!5pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has today announced the appointment of Charbel Barakat to the board of his hand-picked Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

Charbel Barakat replaces Michael Sasso Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

Charbel Barakat, a former Jeopardy champion, replaces Michael Sasso who resigned last week from his board position after less than four months in the job.

Barakat, of Tampa, is the Regional General Counsel for D.R. Horton, Inc. He currently serves as a Commissioner for the Second District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission and serves on the Florida Development Finance Corporation. Barakat is Vice President of the Federalist Society for the Tampa Bay Chapter and Chairman of the Volume Builders Council for the Florida Home Builders Association. Barakat earned his bachelor’s degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University and his juris doctor from New York University School of Law.

The appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.

Barakat will join the board that was appointed by DeSantis to replace the Reedy Creek Improvement District at the end of February 2023. Other members of the five-person board are Bridget Ziegler, one of the authors of Florida's controversial Parental Bill of Rights law, Ron Peri, a former senior pastor of Evangel Baptist Church and now CEO of The Gathering, and lawyers Martin Garcia and Brian Aungst.

The entire board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is being sued by the Walt Disney Company as part of the lawsuit against the district and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

mikejs787 hours ago

There are many issues with FL law with what the state did. Trouble is the courts in FL are stacked with DeSantis appointees.

Disstevefan18 hours ago

On the other hand, the "residents" of RCID were hand picked by Disney. There were two little cul-de-sacks of mobile homes within the district and those were the hand picked residents of RCID.

JoeCamel8 hours ago

You elect the governor and they appoint the board so you still have a vote. In any case I think that would be a federal complaint not one tried in the state courts

tecowdw8 hours ago

On thing I've always wondered why it wasn't mentioned by Disney... The CFTOD board is 100% appointed by the State with no representation from the actual land owners within the municipality. They have no voting rights to pick who represents them on the board. Now I realize that was kind of the point of the whole political issue but how is that not unconstitutional - taxation without representation? Doesn't every municipality have to do general elections to pick their board representatives? Even RCID did that.

tecowdw9 hours ago

Just goes to show that the whole thing was just a political stunt. Now that the political steam has ran out on this issue, it actually operates like it is suppose to. A good sign that maybe CFTOD and Disney can live amicably after all. And I'm sure they definitely will once the remnants of Desantis and his original board cronies are all long gone and forgotten. It was always a given that Disney would be around long after those political individuals' "15 seconds of fame" ended. I wonder if Garcia, the vocal Disney critic, leaving the board was part of a back room deal to get Disney to drop their lawsuits and renegotiate the RCID development agreement. Maybe that's also how an experienced new administrator got put in place as well. I can't imagine Disney just relinquished all of it's lawsuits/agreements without ensuring they had something valuable in return since they are +80% of the district's tax base in land ownership. They just aren't that stupid! ;) At the end of the day, while Disney lost control of their municipality, it's in everyone's best interest to work together for the common goal of bringing tourist dollars in to the maximum potential. Central Florida could be a very different place had Disney not been able to expand their operations for 51 years with RCID.

GoneViral1 day ago

Happy days are here again.

MR.Dis1 day ago

I just read a report that the CFTOD meeting was a boring managing the district business, just like the old RCID days. No protests and very little attendance. No mention of the pending negotiation of the developement agreement.

DCBaker3 days ago

The agenda and documents for the CFTOD Board of Supervisors meeting is now available at the link below. Included in this packet are documents related to the FY2023 Annual Financial Statement presentation and an annual audit by Cherry Bekaert, LLP. As a head's up, the meeting has shifted an hour from previous times - it is scheduled to begin at 10:30am. https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-Packet-4-24-24-Final-P.pdf

flynnibus8 days ago

Looks to be moved https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-04-24-24-Agenda-Outline.pdf

wdwmagic8 days ago

Amazing, there is actually some real business on the agenda for a change.

DCBaker8 days ago

The agenda outline for the next CFTOD meeting on Wednesday, April 24 is available at this link*: https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-04-24-24-Agenda-Outline.pdf *Edited to update as the link was changed after posting (thanks @flynnibus!).

flyakite10 days ago

Batman'sParents13 days ago

Was curious about this: Is there an expectation that CFTOD will delegate some responsibilities to the cities as part of the understanding between the state and Disney?